Stag Night of the Dead (2010) Review

A zombie epidemic is sweeping through England and poor Dean has to face the music of his wedding day but not before his rowdy mates strong arm him into a stag night he'll never forget. His mates hire a limousine that takes them out to an old abandoned air base where they plan to engage in a game of zomball. Zomball involves shooting zombies with electric guns while generally pissing around having a laugh. Things start to get out of hand however and the group find themselves fighting for their very lives as the zombie hordes converge on them. Will Dean make it down the aisle on time, if at all?

Stag Night of the Dead is (if you haven't guessed from the intro paragraph) a British zombie horror comedy. Sadly it doesn't hold a candle to the beloved Shaun of the Dead, though it's not entirely a bad movie.

The movie sports a cast of relative unknowns who for the most part do a reasonable job at conveying their characters wackiness and general tomfoolery. This isn't the kind of movie that's ever going to get Oscar nominations so it would be somewhat stupid to expect glorious performances from the cast but to sum up the acting standard, i'd say it's acceptable.

This movie isn't very frightening, though being a comedy that's no big surprise. The sad thing is i didn't really find it that funny either. Sure there are some moments that are mildly chuckleworthy but as a whole i would'nt have said it's funny.

The gore that's present is decent enough considering the flicks b-movie status though a lot of the special effects just look plain naff. Why they decided to have the main cast shooting P-90's with electrical bolts coming out of them i'll never know, it even looks like they've got silencers on them as well which makes no sense what so ever. Perhaps i'm just nitpicking but that just sums up my whole experience with Stag Night of the Dead - inconsistent. If a movie wants to be funny - be funny. If it's going to be a horror - be scary. Movies like Stag Night of the Dead (just like the recently reviewed Bite Marks) straddle that nether place where satisfaction comes in few and far between.

Ultimately though a movie should be entertaining and i did'nt feel this with Stag Night. It's not the worst movie i've seen this year - by far but it's a difficult movie to recommend. Perhaps one to watch when your bored.

Stag Night of the Dead is available in the UK through Left Films on Jan 9th, 2012.